


A Better Captain

by swiperade



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bonding, Fluff, Gen, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), One word, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), god save my soul, how tf do I tag shit, i love them, its all warriors and Wild bonding, reference to malnourishment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:28:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26189509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swiperade/pseuds/swiperade
Summary: This is for the summer gift exchange on the LU Discord for Cromulent Crustacean (Crab!)The prompt was Warriors and Wild bonding, seeing as the two don’t get to much time together. So here it is I guess.
Relationships: Warriors & Wild (Linked Universe)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 239





	A Better Captain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cromulent_Crustacean_Crab](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cromulent_Crustacean_Crab/gifts).



> Tw: a little bit of malnourishment (referenced), a little bit of dehydration, maybe a bit of child abuse 
> 
> Anyway I hope y’all like this because it took me ages to write.

The sound of swords clashing echoed through the training yard. Warriors smiled to himself, enjoying the moment of contentment in his own era. Most of the trainees were new to him, but he didn’t mind that. Besides, Impa had taken it upon herself to help train while he was adventuring with the others. 

The band of heroes had been traveling for days, with hardly a break from the onslaught of infected monsters that suddenly started appearing more often. Even Wind had looked dead on his feet, despite being the most energetic of the bunch. Since then, the heroes had split up, some retiring to rooms, others lounging near the kitchens, eager for a nice meal.

Now, it was just him, Sky, and Wild, the only ones who had been given formal training. Wild couldn’t remember it, as far as Warriors knew, but that didn’t seem to matter much to the younger hero, who was watching the clearing with interest. Sky almost looked as if he was going to fall asleep standing up. 

“Chosen, you know that you can go nap in the guest rooms, right?” Warriors asked jokingly. Sky snorted, and turned to look at him, yawning. 

“We’ll see. I was half listening to the conversation this time,” Sky insisted, drowsily waving his hand through the air in a half-hearted attempt at redeeming himself. 

“Do you even know what we were talking about?” The Captain shot back jokingly. Sky thought for a moment. 

“Something about you telling Wild the proper technique for… something. Yeesh, maybe I should go take a nap,” 

“No, I have to know, have you never tried using a spear?” Wild asked, flipping through his slate and holding it up to show the other heroes. “It’s great! I could be attacking fifteen bokoblins and it’d be easy because I can keep them six feet away from me!” 

“Just wait until I tell the Rancher that you did that,” Warriors threatened, and Wild gasped, hooking the slate back onto his belt. 

“I said that I could have, not that I did. Get your facts straight, Captain,” Wild argued, failing to keep a straight face. Warriors snorted, and turned to face him.

“And for some reason I don’t doubt that you actually did that,” He retorted, shutting Wild up in a silence that meant he indeed had tried it Sky giggled, distracting the two from their conversation. 

“If it’s any consolation, I am very proficient with a whip,” He offered, smiling. Wild beamed, and started asking where he even found a whip in the first place. 

“You’ve never seen a whip before?” Sky questioned, baffled at the response. Wild nodded eagerly, and gladly held the offered item. He studied it with intense interest, and resigned to taking a picture of it on his slate, probably to show his Zelda when he got home. 

“Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen one like that either,” Warriors added, taking the whip from Wild. He was about halfway through inspecting it when a clang louder than the rest echoed throughout the clearing. 

Looking up, a trainee had been knocked to the ground by another, the sturdy armor scraping against the ground. Warriors watched as Impa seemed to offer some advice to the little recruit, and helped him up to try again. 

“If anything, I think that woke me up,” Sky said after a moment of silence between the three. 

“I doubt anything could- is Wild alright?” 

At a first glance, it would look like the champion was merely staring off into space, but Warriors and Sky knew better. They had seen it before, after all. His eyes were blank and far off, looking straight through the training yard and straight into a memory. 

“What do we do now? Should one of us get Twilight?” Sky nearly whispered, worrying his lip. Warriors thought for a moment. He could get through this, right? What if Wild was reliving a bad memory, and something happened? The captain had no idea, having not seen what it was like when Wild actually came out of his nostalgic stupor. 

“I don’t know. Let’s wait it out, then we’ll decide what to do. If things are bad, I’ll find the Rancher and you talk to him, if not, thank Hylia,” Warriors decided, resuming his focus on the training yard in what seemed like a small ditch attempt to take the attention off of their amnesiac friend. 

Warriors and Sky waited in silence for nearly three minutes when Wild returned. At first, all they heard was a little gasp from the boy, turning their heads to see his brows furrowed, eyes staring at the ground while he was lost in thought. 

“Wild, are you alright?” Warriors prompted, speaking gentler than he had in awhile. He stayed silent for a few moments before responding.

“Yeah. I’m just going to take a walk,” He murmured, turning away and exiting back inside the castle. 

“I’m going to take a guess here and say that it wasn’t a good memory,” Sky muttered, wearing a look of concern. Warriors sighed. 

“Do you think- maybe I could talk to him?” He offered, and Sky turned around faster than he had moved that entire morning. 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I’m pretty sure he punched Legend when he tried to wake him up from a nightmare. I think we should get Twilight,” Sky insisted, and Warriors shook his head.

“If he got a memory in the training yard, it must have been a memory of his training, and I know the most out of that than anyone. If anyone could help him, it’d be me,” Warriors replied, and Sky considered it. 

“Okay,” He mused. “Just be careful. Don’t make him any more upset,”

“I’ll do my best,” Warriors promised, and then turned to walk off in the direction of the champion. 

**********

Warriors found Wild in the courtyard. He was leaning against a wall, in the shade of a bush, hiding from the sights of everyone else. Warriors steeled himself, ready for a backlash. Taking a step forward, he purposely stepped loudly, noticing the way Wild’s ear twitched in recognition to his presence. 

The Captain sat down, a good three feet away from Wild, growing uncomfortable in the awkward and heavy silence. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked hesitantly, glancing over in Wild’s direction. The person in question shrugged, and kept silent. “I can leave if you want me to, just ask. I wanted to see if there was any way that I could help,”

“What does it mean to you? Being a captain, I mean,” Wild murmured, taking Warriors by surprise. He shrugged.

“To me? It means a lot. After the war and everything, I take pride in continuing to protect my kingdom, just like we’re all trying to do. To others, I’m supposed to be a role model, someone to look up to and ask questions. Calm, collected, patient. It’s a lot of responsibility, but I’m happy to do it,” He answered after a moment of thought. Wild tensed, and for a moment Warriors tried to consider what Wild would say if Warriors had said something wrong. Wild laughed dryly, leaning his head back against the stone wall. 

“I don’t know how to feel about that answer. Didn’t you ever wonder why I was so quiet when I met you all?” He croaked, voice becoming hoarse. Warriors shifted uncomfortably.

“Well, I can’t say I didn’t, but for a time I didn’t talk too much either. My fairy friend did most of the talking for me back then,” He admitted, and Wild furrowed his brows. 

“Why’d you stop?” 

“Stress. The pressure of suddenly becoming a hero was the worst of it. Before that, all I can remember was people expecting more from me then they got. I poured myself into training, becoming the perfect knight I was supposed to be. I didn’t start talking more until I met some of the people from the other eras, especially all the sassy ladies that came through. You should have seen Time’s Zora Princess lecture me out,” He laughed at the memory, getting a small smile from Wild, before it faded, and he continued to speak. 

“I remembered my old captain. And I think- I think that I wanna tell you some things,” He finished, looking at Warriors, suddenly making the Captain feel very small. But nevertheless, Warriors nodded, and Wild started telling the story of his newest memory.

**********

Link coughed, nearly tripping as he did so when he was suddenly forced to dodge away from the knight in front of him. 

“Sloppy! Clean it up! You’ll never beat him like that!” The captain called out from his location in the shade. It was boiling hot, and Link was shaking under the practice armor that he wore. The opposing knight, however, stood tall, having switched out with another only minutes ago. 

The knight swung his sword again, and Link darted under him, making an attempt to strike him in the back, but was instead shut down as the knight turned and slammed the hilt into his side. Link’s twelve-year-old malnourished body didn’t stand a chance against the older knight, and he was knocked to the ground, a sword now pointed at his throat. 

“Worthless. Get up, and do it again,” The captain commanded, and Link tried to push himself up, he really did, but his arms ended up giving out, and he was rendered practically immobile on the ground, breathing so hard that his chest was burning with the effort. 

“I said get up. You’ll never stand a chance against the Calamity at this rate. Not even close. I’ll say it again, get up,” The captain ordered, and Link, out of sheer will, managed to pull himself to his feet, and leaned heavily against his sword, unable to raise it more than a few inches. 

Then, to Link’s surprise, Impa spoke up. 

“Captain, sir, he’s clearly dehydrated. He needs to rest before he gets seriously sick,” She pleaded, and the captain turned to sneer at her. 

“This is not your decision. You may be becoming the Sheikah Chief, but this is not your place to speak,” He retorted, struggling to keep up his half-hearted calm demeanor. At that point, Link was sure that he was delirious, as the Master Sword he was leaning on seemed to be humming in his mind. Wait- that could’ve been his headache. Just thinking about it reminded him of the ache in his skull. 

Before he knew it, his vision swarmed with exhaustion, and Link felt weightless as he found himself with his head in Impa’s arms. Her mouth was moving, but Link couldn’t hear what she was saying as he gave in to the abyss. 

**********

“If I ever see that son of a bitch, I think I might kill him,” Warriors spat out once Wild finished retelling the memory. 

“He’s dead, Wars,” He reminded, and Warriors scoffed. 

“Hylia knows that won’t stop me,” He said, turning to face Wild. The captain’s gaze softened when he realized that that wasn’t what Wild needed at the moment, as tears were beginning to prick at the corners of his eyes. “You know you’re safe here, right?” 

Wild nodded. 

“And you know that I’d never treat you like that, right?” Warriors continued, voice getting softer. Wild nodded again, and Warriors took the opportunity to sit shoulder to shoulder, bringing his knees to his chest. 

“It’s just, sometimes I feel guilty that there are parts of my life now that I like more than my life before. That I could see my house, and Flora and all my friends, and even though I know I had a family then too, I could not want to go back to before,” Wild explained, and Warriors sighed. He knew nothing about this stuff. So why did he think that he was qualified to help Wild? Well, he didn’t think that, he was too eager to try and help.

“Well, I know I’m not Twilight, and I’m usually on the pep talk side of things, not necessarily giving advice, but I think that’s okay this time around. Things happen for a reason, Wild, and whatever happened with the Calamity wasn’t your fault, and yet it changed so much for you. I think it’s amazing that you know that you’re here now, and that you’ve made the most of it,” Warriors assured, nudging playfully at Wild’s shoulder. “And besides, I also think I’d take you now over you before any day,” 

Wild smiled, and sniffed, rubbing at his eyes before bringing up his arms and hugging himself. 

“I think I’m just happy to have a better captain,” He said, half to himself and half to Warriors. The captain in question beamed, and wrapped his scarf around the other’s shoulders, feeling content as the younger hero leaned into the warmth. 

“We should go inside, it’s getting cold,” Warriors suggested as a cool breeze blew by. “We can join Sky on his nap. Hylia help him if he hasn’t gone inside yet, you saw him earlier,” 

Wild giggled, a rare sound, but one that filled Warriors with pride nevertheless. He snorted, and helped his friend up, his scarf still dangling from Wild’s shoulders. He turned the way he came, and Warriors followed, taking one last look at the courtyard for good measure. 

To his surprise, he found Twilight, standing at the other end, smiling at him proudly. A smile that made Warriors feel warm even in the cold evening air.


End file.
